Firelocks: The Pirate's Favorite Arm | Pirate Weaponry

"They name the musket their arm," Exquemelin said of the buccaneer's weaponry, not the cannon or cutlass. With a neverending volley of muskets, pistols and blunderbusses they could surpress or murder the enemy, destroy the rigging, or just terrify them into submission. Firelocks were cheap and reliable, but they were much more colorful and complex than the stock Brown Bess seen in movies. There were subtypes like Arquebus, Espingole and criminally underrated Fusil Boucanier - a 6 foot long musket favored by the buccaneers. Additionally there were different maintenance methods and ammunition types for improving performance - all of which we'll discover in this video.



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Sources:
The Buccaneer's Realm - Benerson Little
The Sea Rover's Practice - Benerson Little
Pirates In Their Own Words - E.T Fox
A Relation of the Great Sufferings and Strange Accounts of Henry Pitman
Supplemented by notes from various different books like Dampier or Wafer's works.


Video Sources:
Tap Loading:    • Brown Bess At 35 Yards Tap Load  
Using bushes as wad:    • Blunderbuss - Buckshot Patterning  
Slugs, etc:    • 17th century wheel lock pistols in ac...  
Loading with leaves:    • Unscientific but Effective | Reloadin...  


0:00 Introduction
2:07 Loading a Firelock
4:01 A Look into Locks
5:34 The Musket
9:44 Pistols
11:23 Blunderbuss
12:35 Firelock Maintenance
13:53 Ammunition
17:44 Conclusion


#pirates #history #weaponry